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Lashley's Brain Research on Memory

This document discusses the history of ideas around localization of brain function. It describes early theorists like Phrenology and Gall who proposed that specific brain regions were responsible for different faculties. Later researchers like Flourens argued functions were performed by the brain as a whole, not in discrete areas. The localization view regained prominence with studies identifying visual processing areas in monkeys and Jackson's discovery of the stereotyped progression of seizures. Broca's study of a patient who could only say "tan" also supported localization of language function. The development of cytoarchitectonic mapping by Broadman and studies of neurons by Cajal, Golgi and others advanced understanding of brain structure and organization.

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38 views2 pages

Lashley's Brain Research on Memory

This document discusses the history of ideas around localization of brain function. It describes early theorists like Phrenology and Gall who proposed that specific brain regions were responsible for different faculties. Later researchers like Flourens argued functions were performed by the brain as a whole, not in discrete areas. The localization view regained prominence with studies identifying visual processing areas in monkeys and Jackson's discovery of the stereotyped progression of seizures. Broca's study of a patient who could only say "tan" also supported localization of language function. The development of cytoarchitectonic mapping by Broadman and studies of neurons by Cajal, Golgi and others advanced understanding of brain structure and organization.

Uploaded by

longdi18
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Phrenology and Gall:

Proposed brain was organ of the mind


Innate faculties were localized to specific regions of the cerebral cortex
o If the functions were used frequently, the area would grow

Flourens
- Mental functiosn performed by brain as whole
o Not in discrete areas
- Big blow to the localizationist viewpoint
Lashley
- Trained rats to run mazes, looking for memory engram
o Where in brain are memories stored?
o Amount of cortex removed had much more effect on retention than
location
- Mass action principle: proportion of brain injured is directly proportional to
decreased ability of memory functions
- Proposed equipotentiality
o Intact parts of the brain will carry out functions lost by lesions to other
parts
Localizaiton POV
- Over 20 different areas identified with visual processing in rhesus macaques
- Distributed vs. non-localization
o Distributed processing: several localized areas that work closely
together for a function
John Hughlings Jackson
- Proposed topographical organizations after working on epileptic patients
- Jacksonian march:
o Seizures, in a very stereotypical way, marched from one body part to
another
Paul Broca
- Patients name was Tan
o Patient could only say tan
Substantial lesion on basal ganglia

Broadmans Map
- Described 52 distinct areas
o Thickness, packing desnities, size and shape of cells
o Cytoarchitectonics

Golgi
- Believed was a synctium
o Continuos mass of tissue with common cytoplasm
o Ex. skeletal and cardiac muscle

Cajal
- Established neuron doctrine
o potentials go from dendrite, cell bodies, to axon

Purkinje Cells
- dendritic trees lie in a plain
- 2-dimensional dendritic fields
Watson
- Behaviorist
- Psychology must be objective
- Believed he could turn any baby into anything, our brain is a ablank state
o Little albert experiments

Penfield
- Surgical destruction of epileptic focus regions to treat epilepsy
- Patients awake during surgery
Hebb
- Hebbs postulate
o Cells that fire together, wire together
o BiologicaasaaZZSASSl basis for learning

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